Customer service, guest relations, and human interaction

by | Jul 12, 2023 | Hospitality

This week has focused on customer service, guest relations, and human interaction in the hospitality experience. Everyone has a different set of expectations going into any situation, based on past experience and their own preferences. It is not always easy to anticipate guest needs and desires and aim to exceed their expectations.
For this discussion, provide an example of a time when you were pleasantly surprised by your interactions with someone in the hospitality industry – where they may have exceeded your expectations, dealt with a problem well, or just in general improved your mood.
Then, provide an example of a time you received not-so-great service and what that meant in terms of whether or not you would ever return to that place of business. Explain how this poor situation could have been handled better – perhaps in a way that would have made you give the establishment a second chance or even a recommendation.

 

 

 

 

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

Sample Solution

A pleasant surprise:

I was once traveling with my family and we had a long flight delay. We were all exhausted and frustrated,

Sample Solution

A pleasant surprise:

I was once traveling with my family and we had a long flight delay. We were all exhausted and frustrated,

A pleasant surprise:

I was once traveling with my family and we had a long flight delay. We were all exhausted and frustrated, and we were not looking forward to spending the night in the airport. However, when we arrived at our gate, we were greeted by a very friendly and helpful gate agent. She immediately offered us some snacks and drinks, and she helped us to find a comfortable place to sit. She also checked on us several times throughout the night to make sure that we were okay. Her kindness and compassion made a big difference in our experience, and we were very grateful for her help.

Not-so-great service:

Another time, I was dining at a restaurant with some friends. We had been waiting for a table for about 20 minutes, and when we finally got seated, our waiter was very rude and dismissive. He took our order and then disappeared for a long time. When he finally came back, he brought the wrong food. We tried to tell him that he had made a mistake, but he just rolled his eyes and said, “Whatever.” We ended up leaving without finishing our meal, and we have never been back to that restaurant since.

In both of these cases, the difference between a good and bad experience was the way that the staff interacted with us. In the first case, the gate agent was kind and helpful, which made us feel welcome and taken care of. In the second case, the waiter was rude and dismissive, which made us feel unwelcome and unimportant.

If the waiter in the second case had been more apologetic and helpful, we might have been willing to give the restaurant a second chance. However, his attitude was so off-putting that we decided to never go back.

I think that the most important thing for businesses in the hospitality industry is to remember that their customers are people. They should treat their customers with respect and kindness, even when the customers are frustrated or upset. If businesses can do that, they will be much more likely to create positive and memorable experiences for their customers.

Here are some specific things that the waiter in the second case could have done to improve the situation:

  • He could have apologized for the mistake and offered to bring us the correct food.
  • He could have been more attentive and checked on us more often to make sure that we were enjoying our meal.
  • He could have been more friendly and welcoming, making us feel like we were valued customers.

If he had done any of these things, we might have been willing to overlook the mistake and give the restaurant another chance. However, his attitude was so off-putting that we decided to never go back.

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